DPCC Co-Chair Bustos: We Are Here to Fight For the American People and Grow the Economy

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy & Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on Fox News Happening Now to discuss A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Future – a bold, new Democratic economic agenda that was released today. Below are excerpts from the interview. Click here to watch the video.

“It’s not only an attempt to communicate that message, but we have policies that back that up. I think this way works if we stay relentless in our focus to making sure that people understand we are there to fight with them, we are there to make sure that we grow the economy and stay focused on that. There are so many distractions here in Washington. I am on the Senate side right now, as I stand here I think about every single day there is some kind of distraction that is getting in the way of us getting an infrastructure bill passed and putting people back to work, addressing our crumbling infrastructure or making sure that people have a shot at good paying full-time jobs as oppose to too many people working part-time now.”
“I happen to represent the entire Central and Northwestern portion of Illinois, Donald Trump won my Congressional district, there’s not that many Democrats who serve in the U.S. House of Representatives that can say that, there are only 12. [Trump} won my district and I won by 20 points. I bring that up because I have focused on jobs and the economy, so to your characterization that the Democrats have become the party of the elite, I don't agree with that, but I think that we need to hearken back to the days where people understand that Democrats are the party that fight for hard-working men and women.”

“We’re going to focus on 10 million good paying full-time jobs, we’ll do that through job training and through apprenticeship programs. Not only making sure that people have a wage where they can buy their kid the shoes they want as opposed to the shoes they need and buy a new pickup truck every several years. How we get to that is through training for the 21st century jobs. We also have to take a look at the expenses that people have, prescription drug costs are going up exponentially, we have to address that. We have to address the fact that co-pays, deductibles and premiums are way too high. I stand here ready to say that I will work with you, President Trump and the Republican-led House.”

“I absolutely support the idea of creating apprenticeships where our community colleges and our technical schools are in the room with employers who can’t fill jobs that they have open. I did a roundtable discussion with the small group of manufacturers and asked every single one sitting around the table, how many of you have jobs that you cannot fill, every single hand went up, so I think the apprenticeship idea is a good one. I am the mother of a welder and he is fortunate enough that he is with the sheet metal workers and has a good job. I know there are so many people who have or want those skills and there are jobs that still need to be filled, so it is partnering all of those folks together.”